Streaming Quarterbacks: Week 4 Targets

Sep 23, 2014

Streaming quarterbacks, like Thanksgiving dinner with politically polar opposite relatives and waterbeds, can be extraordinarily uncomfortable.

And so it was with Geno Smith – and even Kirk Cousins – in Week 3. Our two recommended streamers (Josh McCown was knocked out of the game in the first quarter, nullifying his QBBWW inclusion) both had fantasy histories as short as they were uneven headed into Week 3.

Geno had an abysmal real-life performance that produced a very serviceable fantasy stat line. He totaled 336 yards to go along with a touchdown and two interceptions – good enough for 16.6 fantasy points. That’s one short of Drew Brees, if you’re keeping score at home.

Cousins went nuclear against the soft Philly secondary, finishing as the week’s No. 2 quarterback with 427 yards and three scores. More on Cousins’ season-long prospects below.

Our QBBWW selections are now averaging 19.1 fantasy points per game, with optimal plays notching 25.1 points.

I’m happy to see the fantasy community’s general acceptance of streaming quarterbacks, but fair warning: It’ll never be comfortable to use a waiver wire option. You’ll squirm. You’ll look to any god or guru who can offer some solace, some tidbit that this quarterback who resided in the depths of the waiver wire is worth a roll of your fantasy dice for one week.

The warm glow of consensus is so comforting when we can deploy the NFL’s top signal callers week in and week out. And maybe there’s something to that. Not having to evaluate the week’s best quarterback plays probably leads to a longer, healthier life.

But what good is a long life without the hair-on-fire antics of Geno Smith on a Monday night making your stomach churn and your pulse race. Stream your quarterbacks and feel alive with me.

Eli Manning (NYG) at Washington

I’m going to go ahead and break the blood oath I took in August and put Eli in this QBBWW space.

Remember that discomfort talk? Here it is: streaming a guy who threw more interceptions than anyone in the league last year and, until last week’s game against Houston, looked unusable for fantasy purposes. But this space is about matchups, and quarterbacks facing the Washington secondary will be a mainstay in my weekly recommendations.

Eli somehow, some way has a 68 percent completion rate through three games to go along with a respectable 0.44 fantasy points per attempt (FPAT) – just behind Matthew Stafford (.45) and Aaron Rodgers (.47).

Eli, since the start of the 2012 season, has averaged 19.3 fantasy points per game in wins and 13.9 points in losses. Washington is favored by 3.5 in this one, but if you believe Big Blue can hang with Gruden’s bunch – and I do – then Eli becomes a viable play against a Washington secondary that last week lost their only legit cover guy in Deangelo Hall. I like Cousins more, but not by much.